Posts Tagged ‘Green Bay Packers

Summer is winding down and that means The Experience is back in action. It has been a crazy summer of sports including some major blockbuster deals L.A, such as Dwight Howard, to Steve Nash, to Hanley Ramirez. Also the Olympics in London were a huge hit, and a wonderful joy to watch. Here is a check in with my two teams.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers are well into training camp, but have been unlucky in the injury department. More than 20 Packers did not participate in the team’s first preseason game in San Diego which was pretty much a disaster. Desmond Bishop was lost for what is looking to be the whole year with a hamstring issue, and Davon House was lost for 2 to 3 weeks with a shoulder sprain. Also the team did not look as if they learned from their postseason defeat to the Giants, as the suffered a total of 4 turnovers. Aaron Rodgers backup Graham Harrell did not preform well to say the least. He struggled to hit any of his receivers, brining up the question of QB depth this season. But hey, no need to get worried, it’s just the PRESEASON.

Los Angeles Lakers

This summer Mitch Kupchack ensured his status among all time great GM’s in basketball history. The Lakers needed a revamp and boy did he deliver. Mitch started off the summer by executing a sign and trade with Phoenix Suns to bring hall of fame point guard Steve Nash to the rival Los Angeles Lakers to finish his career. With Nash the Lakers get one of the game’s all time great facilitators, who can exploit teams with the pick and roll, and outside shooting. Nash immediately turned the Lakers back into title contenders. Mitch however, wasn’t satisfied. Next, the savvy vet Antwan Jamison was brought in to provide a scoring presence off the bench. Like Nash, Jamison is in his late 30’s, but that’s not to say he doesn’t have anything left in the tank. This seemed to cap the Lakers offseason after about a 3 week time period went by with no more additions. There were rumors of Dwight coming to the Lakers, but no deal ever materialized.

But then on August 15th, when it seemed as if Dwight would be stuck in Orlando for another season, the Lakers shocked the basketball world by stealing another all-star center from the Orlando Magic for pretty much biscuits and gravy.

I know Andrew Bynum is a all-star, but looking at it from the Magic standpoint, the Lakers got a hell of deal for the 6 time all-star. Dwight will probably miss about a month, as he is still recovering from back surgery, but when he gets back I don’t see any team capable of stopping this Lakers team. Howard’s presence on the defensive end of the floor can not be matched by anyone in the NBA. Sure Andrew Bynum had some good defensive showings, but it seemed like it was a rare occurrence. This is what separates Andrew and Dwight, as Howard has more than enough of an offensive game to match Bynum’s. And finally the Mitch finished dinner by bringing in sharp shooter Jodie Meeks from the Sixers to add shooting and scorer to the bench.

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By winning the Super Bowl XLV Most Valuable Player award, Rodgers has now accomplished something Favre never did. Rodgers’ performance in the Packers’ 31-25 victory over the Steelers was nothing short of sensational, and was a better game on football’s biggest stage than Favre ever turned in.

Rodgers had a Super Bowl performance that stands on its own as one of the greatest ever. He completed 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions, and did it against a good Steelers defense, on a day when his receivers weren’t giving him much help, with several drops. Rodgers was as good as it gets in the biggest game of his career.

A few teams told them they would take him earlier, but decided last minute to snub him.

The same year, Alex Smith was the #1 overall pick, going to San Francisco. Alex Smith has been named the starter 5 different times in his career, and been benched each of those times at one point in the season.

Many teams, who are lacking a decent QB today, would have the face of their franchise changed forever, had they just taken a shot on Aaron Rodgers.

So as a Green Bay fan for most of my life, I’d like to say:
“Thank you for handing us this demigod of a quarterback.”

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Can the Philadelphia Eagles recover from two consecutive losses to end the season? I don’t think a season-ending loss to the Cowboys on Sunday will have a major impact because the Eagles left most of their stars on the sideline. In fact, it was pretty impressive that a bunch of backups nearly handed the full-strength Cowboys a loss. But the loss to Minnesota last Tuesday is still baffling. The Eagles actually had something to play for in that game, and they didn’t show up. If Michael Vick continues to recover from his quadriceps injury and DeSean Jackson’s foot heals, the Eagles should regain their devastating speed. Resting the starters against the Cowboys was the right move. Now, the Eagles will face one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Aaron Rodgers. The Chicago Bears held the Packers down for much of Sunday’s game, but Rodgers was able to connect with Greg Jennings on a gorgeous throw to set up the winning touchdown.

Michael Vick began his remarkable season against this team. When Kevin Kolb left the Eagles’ season-opener against the Packers with a concussion, Vick was sensational in relief. He threw for 175 yards and a touchdown to go along with 103 rushing yards. He famously said after the game that he thought the Eagles would’ve won had he been on the field the entire time. Andy Reid ended up making Vick the starter, and the rest is history. But this week, the sixth-seeded Packers will be game-planning for Vick. Cornerback Charles Woodson may be headed to the Pro Bowl, but I believe that Tramon Williams has had the better season. The Packers’ defensive backs will try to be physical with Jackson and Jeremy Maclin at the line of scrimmage. The Packers held Jay Cutler and the Bears to a field goal Sunday in bailing out what is normally a prolific offense. Why did the Bears play their starters when nothing was on the line? It’s probably because they desperately wanted to keep a dangerous team such as the Packers out of the playoffs. I think the Eagles would’ve preferred playing the Giants a third time to playing the Packers again.

The Eagles’ secondary is about to encounter perhaps the best group of receivers in the league. The Packers’ receivers do a tremendous job of running after the catch, as the Giants learned last week. If Rodgers gets in a groove early, the Eagles could be in trouble. The Eagles have given up 31 passing touchdowns this season, which ranks them right behind the Cowboys in terms of worst in the NFC. Rodgers thrives on finding his receivers on crossing routes and watching them add 20 or 30 yards to the play. The Eagles’ defensive backs must do a much better job tackling against this group. The Eagles have the offensive firepower to keep up in a shootout, but Reid doesn’t want it to come to that. Philadelphia’s biggest flaw is its defense, and the Packers have the weapons to expose it. Fortunately for the Eagles, the Packers’ offensive tackles have struggled at times. This is the type game when defensive end Trent Cole’s ability to get leverage will help in a big way. And the Eagles must figure out a way to keep defensive end Juqua Parker from playing too many snaps. D-end Darryl Tapp made some nice plays against the Cowboys on Sunday and the Eagles need him to continue his strong play. But I can’t imagine a better first-round matchup than this. If you can think of the last No. 6 seed that looked this scary, let me know.